AND FROM OUR “IF YOU HAVE A...

AND FROM OUR “IF YOU HAVE A LEMON, MAKE LEMONADE” DEPT.: It’s hard enough to get ornery old rock critics to listen to an unknown new band. But its even more difficult to get reviewers to play a new record by a group that already has a reputation for being a snooze. Maybe that’s why MCA Records sent selected critics around the country a tape by a new group called Dodge City.

As it turned out, the band wasn’t so new after all. It’s actually Kansas, a journeyman group which MCA recently signed after many years at CBS Records. The band’s new album, “Power” (which hits the stores this week), marks the return of original lead singer Steve Walsh and features a new guitarist, Steve Morse from the Dixie Dregs. Asked why the band’s tape went out in disguise, a label spokeswoman explained: “We think it’s a good record and were just hoping to get the press to listen with an open mind.”

And maybe all those Washington Wives attacks on heavy metal are turning out to be a blessing in disguise. Capitol Records certainly seems to think so. The label has a new album due out later this month from W.A.S.P., one of the prime targets of the anti-rock crusade. In the label’s information packet on the band, which goes out to record stores around the country, it lists as a “Market Advantage” that “the album contains a parental advisory about explicit lyrics” and that the group has been “occasionally banned here and there around the world.” The record has an even better attention-getting device--singer Blackie Lawless, who appears naked on the album cover, clad only in black-and-gold-striped body paint.